1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for attaching a plurality of fastener elements to the sleeve or pocket portion of a garment, such as a pair of trousers, a skirt or the like, at predetermined intervals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a process of attaching a fastener element to a sleeve or pocket portion of a garment, and more particularly when an eye member for hook-and-eye fasteners is to be attached to a waistband of a pair of trousers, the eye member is clenched by a reciprocating punch of a clenching machine against an associated separate back plate which is disposed on a die and placed against the backside of the waistband. One example such clenching machine is disclosed in British Patent No. 1,329,084.
The disclosed clenching machine is so constructed as to attach a pair of eye members simultaneously to a garment such as a pair of trousers. To this end, the clenching machine includes a pair of lower dies, vibratory hoppers for supplying the eye members to the respective lower dies through chutes, a pair of upper dies formed by recesses in the underside of a mandrel member, and back-plate storage magazines from which back plates are supplied through chutes to the respective upper dies. The mandrel member can be displaced in a direction away from a clenching station of the machine so that the mandrel member can readily receive a waistband of the trousers with greater working space available for manipulation of the material. This displacement of the mandrel member is obtained by a displacement mechanism comprising a quadrilateral link mechanism.
The clenching machine of the foregoing construction operates highly efficiently because two eye members are attached at the same time. However, this machine is complicated in construction, large in size and hence occupies a relatively large space for installation thereof. Yet, the known clenching machine is difficult to maintain because a fine adjustment must be done frequently so as to ensure that two eye-element and back-plate pairs are supplied at the same timing and then clenched under the same condition. Furthermore, in order to provide a relatively large space around the mandrel member, the amount of displacement of the mandrel member must be increased by using a quadrilateral link mechanism having relatively long link members. Such a quadrilateral link mechanism is large in height, therefore, the manipulating portion is set at a relatively high position. With this high manipulating position, a high working efficiency of the operator is difficult to expect.